First Report of Squash leaf curl Philippines virus Infecting Chayote (Sechium edule) in Taiwan

Young shoots and leaves of chayote (Sechium edule (Jacq.) Sw.) are commonly consumed as a vegetable in Taiwan. In Hualien County, the major chayote-production area of Taiwan, as much as 15% of chayote plants were not marketable between September and October 2010 because of mosaic symptoms on the leaves. Three symptomatic leaves were collected from each of three fields in Hualien. All nine samples tested positive for a begomovirus by PCR using general primer pair PAL1v1978B/PAR1c715H (3) and negative for Zucchini yellow mosaic virus, Cucumber mosaic virus, Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus, Melon yellow spot virus, Papaya ringspot virus - type W, Watermelon mosaic virus, and Watermelon silver mottle virus by ELISA (2). On the basis of the high nucleotide sequence identity (97.7 to 99.6%) of the 1.5-kb begomoviral DNA-A fragments, all nine samples were considered infected by the same begomovirus species. The 1.5-kb sequences had greatest nucleotide sequence identity (96.6 to 97.8%) with Squash leaf curl Ph...